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57boxman

After, I had the W.R.E.N.C.H.E.S Crew over to work on my '57 last Thursday I got new wind in my sails in regards to working on my car.

Today Sunday, November 17, 2013, I spent 5 hours of quality time in the garage fixing a nonfunctioning headlight. I had gone on Ebay weeks ago and bought 2 new blue dot halogen headlights. Of course, I could not just replace the old bulbs with the new. I had to make some custom cuts in the headlight bucket and strengthen and restore the headlight pigtails. I was also not happy with the supply wires to the pig tails and replaced them as well. To feel safe, I soldered all the wire connections.

Please share your activates with your car.
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57boxman · Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:44 pm Post subject:

I hope that you are enjoying you car more than I am today. What I'm doing with my car is using it for a table for Christmas decorations boxes.
Surprised

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David Graves · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 9:08 am Post subject:

nice

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57boxman · Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 5:02 pm Post subject:

I had a fantastic day today with my 57'. I have been sick for a month, nothing life threatening but, being sick kept me cooped up in the house. With cabin fever egging me on, I gasses up the 57' for a drive to celebrate MLK day. I drove from The Colony to Fort Worth to shop at Cheaper Than Dirt. I didn't find anything there that I could not live without.

I was looking for .223 rounds, however, they had none in my price range. They had great prices on full metal jacket rounds. Since I don't have a rich uncle with land that I can shoot on and the local gun ranges will not let you use FMJ, I passes on the rounds.

Having a wild hair, I had decided to drive to club member Kenneth Burton's shop located North of Forth Worth. I didn't have his phone number to call ahead to be sure he was there today. So, there was a chance, I would not find him. On the way to Forth Worth I was stuck in 121 SHW traffic.. Going only three miles an hour and time on my hands, I noticed a sticker on the window of a SUV for some business that was called Kenni Burton's. Now that was not a sticker for my Kenneth but, I decided that was as a good omen. When I pulled in his drive, he was there.

We shot the breeze for a while. I got to checkout his shop. Here is where I am, again, a lucky guy. I showed Kenneth s broken door latch on my 57'. He told me how to replace the hinge, and saw that I had more than the one hinge broken. To top it off, he had two matching hinges in his shop that that I was able to use. It is so great to know so many people, who have such vast knowledge about Tri-Fives! Thanks again Kenneth!

Heading East, I made a stop at Cabela's. I had a buffalo burger for lunch before, I looked around and found some .223 rounds that I had to buy.

They say there are no such things as time machines. I beg to differ. I chose to drive the back roads from Saginaw back home. Driving country black top roads, in my 57', with the window down, blaring early 70's rock music out of tinny sounding speakers; for a brief moment I was back in 1975, when I was 17, driving around, wasting time on the back roads of Peoria County. Can you remember when you would just go out for a ride in your hot rod for the fun of it? I do.

I made it home alive. Fun City. Now, I have one more project to do to the 57'.
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57boxman · Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:12 pm Post subject:

January 21, 2014

I started a new project on the '57 today. I have two broken driver side door hinges. The ones I have in place now are functional but, one has a crack on the mounting plate and the other has the return spring broken.. I had gotten two replacements from Kenneth yesterday. One was a little rusty and I had to sand blast it clean. With the rust removed, I prepped them for paint. Since it was only 41 degrees today, I decided to wait for a warmer day to paint the hinges.

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57boxman · Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 5:50 pm Post subject:

January 22, 2014

I worked on the door hinges today. They both received a coat of primer and finish paint. While they were drying, I removed the inner door panel. Having time left in the day, I loosened the hinge bolts on the door. There are 4 Phillips screws that hold the mounting bracket of the 2 hinges. The first 3 came out without a problem, however number 4 was a problem. The Phillips groves of that screw were a little stripped by some other loving owner. Of course, I stripped them all the way. I had to chisel the screw to get it out. All the bolts are now loose ready for the new hinges to be installed when they dry. There are 3 things I hate, which are cold coffee, wet TP and waiting. After buggering up the last screw, I will have to order new replacements.
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orange56 · Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 7:33 pm Post subject:

Alan I can send you some screws. will gather them up thursday. text me a address to send them to. also any other bolts you may need.

57boxman · Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 7:37 pm Post subject:

January 25, 2014

I took a couple of hours today to work on my 57. I took the old hindges off and installed the new ones. Tomorrow. hopefully, I will put the door on and get it lined up.

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57boxman · Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:43 pm Post subject:

Taped up paint touched up.

Removed striker plate to be able to adjust the door easier. The original Larks Blue paint was underneath.

My Dad's old grinder's rubber motor mounts designated. They were 60 years old, so, I guess that's ok. I made and inserted new mounts and she is good as new and ready for another 60 years.

Note the old style square headed lag screws holding down the grinder. You can only buy hexagon bolts and screws today. At home Depot anyway.

The 2 by 6 that the stone wheel is on was a piece of wood left over from when my Dad built my childhood home in Peoria, Illinois in the early 50's.
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57boxman · Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:09 pm Post subject: March 10, 2015

Moved from Cars and Parts for Sale/ Wanted[url] http://www.dallasclassicchevy.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2[/url]

I really have no clue. As you have seen with my estimate of value of the pictured car on Craig's List; I am still stuck in the 70's when it comes to Tri5 values.

I don't want to sell my car. However, one never knows what the future holds for each of us. If I were to sell, I would like to start from an accurate informed position. I also need to update the insurance for the old girl.

I am working on restoring the interior of the Hell Bitch. I have primed the window trim, prepared and sanded the dash and steering wheel. Because they are hard to come by I am waiting for a good day to paint. This weather has been a kill joy to my efforts to finish the first step of my winter project. Step two will to be to fix my broken bench seat frame and put on a new cover. If I have the funds, I want to get the door covers replaced as well, so that the vinyl matches.

I would like to have a new head liner except for the sad fact that my fuzzies are so worn that my side windows have developed cracks. I have purchased new fuzzies for the window trim and plan to replace the side windows before I buy a head liner. I'm fighting with buying a cover for the seats and doing the work myself. I have not even considered putting in a new head liner. I have had no success fixing headliner on other cars.

Alan

What I want as a finished product. The interior of the car I have chosen for an example was at the Autoramma. Either on purpose or not the seats don't match the doors. I want them to match or maybe just old school tuck and roll??????

Ready for paint

Prime coat, March 10, 2015

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57boxman · Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:19 pm Post subject:

After looking at these pictures you would never guess I have Missouri Hillbilly in my family tree.

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57boxman · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:35 am Post subject:

I painted color yesterday. I'm not happy with my paint gun or the operator. No pictures.
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orange56 · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:28 pm Post subject:

Ok the front windows are fairly easy. You have to take the vent window out first. The door glass will have to be down to do that. The vent window has to be wiggled around to get the bottom our are you can take the bottom adjustment screw out. The rear windows are hard to do but the glass needs to be in the same place as your old glass so mark the bottom glass holder before removing the old glass. I find it much easier to do with a helper on the rear glass.
Also you can call me and we can talk about it.

57boxman · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:28 pm Post subject:

Thanks for you help Kennith.

I am still working on paint.

My first effort was a failure. I tried a little gun I have because of the small parts and since I am only painting with 4 oz at a time. I read that the gun had a tendency to spray dry. They were not lying. I had to sand and paint again.

My second effort was much better, except I didn't have enough light and missed some areas. I also got glue finger prints on several pieces. Live and learn.

All in all, I am enjoying doing paint work. I knew before hand, that I would make mistakes, being a green horn and all. As you know, you can't learn something unless you try. Or, you can't know what you don't know.

My new motto is: "Sand, paint and repeat."
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57boxman · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 8:35 am Post subject:

Still working on the interior. Not happy with about a 1/3 of color coat. I will repaint as soon as I gather new materials.

However, The instrument cluster came out nice.

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